I received a bottle of cognac that was given to my parents as a wedding
gift in 1975. Not knowing much about cognac, I hope someone can help
me out. It originally shared a box with a huge goblet (which I have
and reads "Souvenir de la fete"). Can anyone help me determine how old
this bottle is? It looks like it was imported (the tag, whose writing
is mostly French, mentions a New York importer) but the gift-giver was
living in France at the time. I understand that cognac doesn't age in
the bottle, but how fancy/expensive is this? I'm not planning on
selling it or anything (we're going to drink it at my wedding), but can
anyone tell me about how much something like this is worth? To whom
might I go to find out more about this bottle?

Here's a photo:

http://astro.berkeley.edu/~jtwright/Otard.jpg

(the wine glass in the photo is not the goblet mentioned above -- the
goblet is much, much bigger).

thanks in advance,

jason

wrote:
> I received a bottle of cognac that was given to my parents as a wedding
> gift in 1975. Not knowing much about cognac, I hope someone can help
> me out. It originally shared a box with a huge goblet (which I have
> and reads "Souvenir de la fete"). Can anyone help me determine how old
> this bottle is? It looks like it was imported (the tag, whose writing
> is mostly French, mentions a New York importer) but the gift-giver was
> living in France at the time. I understand that cognac doesn't age in
> the bottle, but how fancy/expensive is this?

You're correct, it does not age in the bottle. It can however gain value
if the drink in question becomes rarer. In this case, it looks like we
are talking about standard Otard VSOP, albeit an old one. New ones are
sold for 30$-40$, and I doubt if this one would be sold for
significantly more, as corresponding drink is widely available today.
But this is just a guess, and I am no expert on these things.

Being a VSOP, it is matured for at least four years. I don't know how
long the bottle has been lying around before it was given in 1975, but
propably most of it was distilled in around 1970. Parts may of course be
much older, as grades in cognacs only state the minimum age for all
brandies that go into it. There should be some parts in it that were
distilled in the groovy 60's...

Aleksi Kallio a écrit :
> wrote:
>> I received a bottle of cognac that was given to my parents as a wedding
>> gift in 1975. Not knowing much about cognac, I hope someone can help
>> me out. It originally shared a box with a huge goblet (which I have
>> and reads "Souvenir de la fete"). Can anyone help me determine how old
>> this bottle is? It looks like it was imported (the tag, whose writing
>> is mostly French, mentions a New York importer) but the gift-giver was
>> living in France at the time. I understand that cognac doesn't age in
>> the bottle, but how fancy/expensive is this?
>
> You're correct, it does not age in the bottle. It can however gain value
> if the drink in question becomes rarer. In this case, it looks like we
> are talking about standard Otard VSOP, albeit an old one. New ones are
> sold for 30$-40$, and I doubt if this one would be sold for
> significantly more, as corresponding drink is widely available today.
> But this is just a guess, and I am no expert on these things.
>
> Being a VSOP, it is matured for at least four years. I don't know how
> long the bottle has been lying around before it was given in 1975, but
> propably most of it was distilled in around 1970. Parts may of course be
> much older, as grades in cognacs only state the minimum age for all
> brandies that go into it. There should be some parts in it that were
> distilled in the groovy 60's...
you are correct but don't hope a large percentage of older than 4 years

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